Proposed McDonald's sparks debate at Trenton council meeting

Martin Griff / The Times of TrentonTrenton Central High School in Trenton in a 2009 photo.

TRENTON — A proposition to realign an alley and sewer lines behind the proposed location for a new McDonald’s across from Trenton Central High School didn’t go over well with council members last night, some of whom said the restaurant shouldn’t be built, period.

The realignment ordinance was introduced on first reading last night and will be voted on next month.

The drive-through restaurant at Hamilton Avenue and Chambers Street received approval from the zoning board earlier this year, with only one dissenting vote.

Attorney George Dougherty appeared before council last night with two engineers for a brief presentation on realigning Baldassari Lane. The alley’s exit onto Chambers Street would be cut off to make room for a McDonald’s parking lot, with the added benefit of cutting down on garbage and delivery trucks using the alley to back out onto Chambers, engineers said. Truck traffic would instead be diverted onto one-way Culbertson Avenue to then exit onto Chambers or Hamilton Avenue.

But council members said last night they weren’t convinced locating a McDonald’s across the street from a high school was a good option for students, neighbors or nearby businesses.

“We cannot have a McDonald’s across the street from the high school,” Councilman Alex Bethea said. “In the past we’ve blocked that street off there at Hamilton and Chambers. When the kids come out there’s mayhem. We cannot allow our children to be subjected to a McDonald’s.”

Council President Kathy McBride and Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson said neighbors on Culbertson might not be thrilled by new truck traffic on their street.

“The trucks coming down those streets the homes are on can eventually do damage to the properties,” McBride said. “We need to make sure the truck traffic is not too heavy for that area.”

Bethea and Councilman Zachary Chester continued to make the point that a McDonald’s did not belong so close to a high school. Not only would students be tempted to eat artery-clogging fast food, but the high school has struggled with security issues when school lets out at the end of the day and streams of teenagers exit the TCHS building. The police department even resorted at one point to shutting down a section of Chambers and placing volunteers on school routes to cut down on fights breaking out upon dismissal.

“McDonald’s plans to have security there, but when 10, 20 students get into a fight those employees are going to call Trenton police and they’re going to have to respond,” Chester said.

Dougherty said many of council’s questions and concerns had already been asked, answered and weighed during the zoning board process.

“All of these issues, every single one of these issues, even down to the menu, were vetted very thoroughly by the zoning board and we’re giving them short shrift,” he said. “Tonight is about giving traffic improvements, but it seems to be about second-guessing the board.”

The addition of the restaurant would transform a vacant bank and accompanying lot into a successful business site that would provide 50 to 75 jobs. The chicken joints and pizzerias located within a quarter-mile of the high school don’t offer the healthy alternatives McDonald’s does, he argued in response to questions about childhood obesity.

“The state of that whole area right now is pretty shabby and right now that property’s been sitting vacant for five years in a row, six years in a row,” Dougherty said. “You’re not going to get a Lord & Taylor’s on that corner. Do you want another Rite Aid, another CVS? What’s going to go there, a T-shirt shop?”

Councilwoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson told council members they weren’t there to weigh the merits of McDonald’s, but to approve or disapprove traffic patterns and a street realignment.

“They are proposing to do the entry way, relocate the sewer and a whole host of other things,” she said. “If council doesn’t approve it they can modify the project so they don’t have to come before council again.”